contemporary

Flirting with Disaster by Ruthie Knox

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne
17156702
Grade: B+
Hotness Level: Blaze
Kink Level: No Kink
Genre: Contemporary
Series: Camelot #3
Published: 6/10/13
Reviewed by Anne
298 ebook pages

Sean stuttered so badly in his childhood that he was essentially not speaking at all in high school.  This is why Katie, who went to high school with him, just always thought he was a quiet guy and never realized he stuttered.  This is why, when Sean comes back to town and ends up working with Katie that he chooses not to speak to her rather than reveal his stutter.  

Katie doesn’t really know what to make of Sean.  She hears him talk to other people, but he never speaks to her.  (His stutter is selective, and only shows up in certain situations or around certain people, such as his secret high school crush, Katie.)  She wonders if he’s just rude and mean, or if she has done something to offend him.  Then she tells herself not to worry about what HE thinks, because she’s done living her life for someone else.  Baggage from a failed marriage left Katie hurting, but she’s getting stronger each day and discovering what it’s like to live life for herself, not in service to someone else.

I loved these two and this story.  And the more I read, the more I liked them.  In fact, when I got toward the end and the confrontation between the two of them that had been building throughout the story… it blew me away!  I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy about how a situation played out.  I don’t want to spoil anything, so I’ll just say Katie and Sean both have issues and they work through them in this book.  The way they do this is so wonderful!  Neither can save the other;  they have to fix themselves!  And it just happens that they’re falling in love at the same time.  That really was a wonderful story to watch unfold!
The secondary story line in this book worked less well for me.  Judah is a rock star who has been receiving threats and Katie and Sean are helping figure this whole situation out.  I think I just never really liked Judah, but I felt like I was supposed to.  So for me, this story line just provided a reason for Katie and Sean to road trip together, and I didn’t care about it a whole lot more beyond that.
One thing I really appreciated about this story is that there was no magical mystical healing of Sean’s stutter.  I think whenever I read a book where a character his some sort of disability, I cringe and worry that the author will use the Voodoo of the Magical Vagina or the Power of the Healing Penis to “fix” that problem.  Not so with Ruthie Knox and I LOVE that.
I’m kicking myself for waiting so long to read this installment in the Camelot series.  The others have all been favorites of mine.  I’m looking forward to more writing and to finishing up my reading of Knox’s backlist.  This is the 3rd story in the Camelot series, but it stands alone well.  I recommend this book and this series!

Playing To Win by Shelley Munro

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

Playing To Win

        

Grade-D
Hotness Level-Blaze?
Kink Level-No Kink
Genre-Romantic Suspense
Reviewed by Kay
228 pages

This was not at all what I expected from Shelley Munro.

A rugby player finds out he has a son he didn’t know about and sets out to confront the boy’s mother. When he meets her, he finds out that the mom isn’t his biological mother but his aunt. His son’ s mother died years earlier and his aunt adopted him. Lane, the hero and Kate, the heroine try to figure out sure paternity and who leaked the story to the tabloids. They are also try to figure out the dynamic of this new family and who is stalking Kate and why.

I really did not care for this book. I found it tedious and boring. Do not even get me started on the love scenes. They were pretty much sleep inducing. It wouldn’t recommend this to someone who likes graphic love scenes but maybe to those who like a simple romance.

Withstanding Me by Crystal Spears

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

Withstanding Me (Breakneck, #2)

       

Grade-B
Hotness Level-Inferno
Kink Level-No Kink
Series- Breakneck #2
Genre-Contemporary
Reviewed by Kay
264 pages

I had to read some other reviews to see if people felt the same way I did about this book. I found out several people did feel the same way I did. There’s plenty of chaos here, violence, steamy sex scenes and filthy mouths.

ZZ aka Zig Zag aka Mason is another member of the Breakneck MC. He lives that lifestyle to the fullest. He takes care of his family despite his daughter’s attempts to constantly test his patience and sanity. He balances this well enough but his focus is distracted because of Storm. Storm is a former sex slave that the MC rescued. She works for the Prez’s wife and is enrolled in school for a business degree.

ZZ wants to take her to bed so bad but she rejects him at every turn. You see, she wants more. More than he is willing to offer her right now. She tells him he’s gonna fall in love one day and it’s gonna be with her. He insists that he has no desire to be a one woman man. She tries to date and he blows a gasket. He even runs her date off. You have all the elements of a Crystal Spears’ book but it felt kind of scaled down. It wasn’t as emotionally engaging as Seize me. It was emotional but not as much. It wrapped up some ends and opened more story arcs for this continuing series. I’m very invested in what goes on from here on out but I want the same intensity as Seize Me.

I hope that in the next book there is some of that but am scared because of Shadow being a sadist. That is one of my very least favorite story lines but I’m gonna trust her not to disappoint. Spears writes really badass heroines so Tatiana is going to be fun to read about and I await a release date.